Saif Gaddafi’s Statement About the Possibility of Justice in Libya

by Kevin Jon Heller

In my post on the detention of Melinda Taylor and her team, I mentioned that the “guard” planted by the Libyan government to spy on the OPCD’s official meeting with Saif first intervened when Saif tried to sign a statement describing his attitude toward the Libyan criminal-justice system. I thought readers might be interested in the statement itself:

2. I want to do so because I believe that Libya, the victims in Libya, the internationally community and myself all have a right to the truth, and for the truth to be made public.

3. I would have liked to have been tried in Libya by Libyan judges under Libyan law in front of the Libyan people. But what has been happening in my case cannot be called a trial,

4. The truth is only possible in a fair and impartial trial,

5. There will be no truth if I am kept locked up and silenced in a remote mountain village, with no or very limited possibility to speak to my lawyers in order to convey my defence,

6. There will also be no truth if witnesses are faced with possible life sentences for simply testifying in my favour, there is no security or protection for them, nor any consequences if these witnesses are threatened and killed,

7. There will certainly be no justice in the case, if the prosecution is based on evidence extracted from torture and other inadmissible evidence, or persons who are too scared to say the truth,

8. I am not afraid to die but if you execute me after such a trial you should just call it murder and be done with it.

9. I would also prefer to live to see Libya become a democracy based on human rights and respect for the rule of law, but you cannot expect democracy to flourish if all the Libyan people see are show trials run by political expediency,

10. Over a year ago, representatives of the NTC asked the international community to intervene so that the Libyan people could have justice, I am asking for exactly the same thing — the only way for Libya and the Libyan people to have justice is for the ICC to try this case in a fair, impartial and independent manner, and, in so doing, set standards, which Libya can follow on its future path to democracy and the rule of law.

It’s a fascinating statement — and one that completely contradicts everything the NTC has been saying about Saif’s desires. It’s obviously much easier to misrepresent what a suspect wants when he’s being held incommunicado…

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